Starting a new business can be exciting. It can also be stressful. Starting a successful business requires a lot of work and a lot of knowledge, and though whichever product or service you are providing is the primary factor that will make or break you, just having a great product or service is no longer enough. There is a lot of competition out there, and the only way to beat that competition is with smart marketing and branding. So how do you make sure that your brand gets out to the public, that the public understands what you have to offer and that they want it, and finally that they take the vital step of taking action?
We are going to go through 5 absolutely essential steps you need to take concerning your online presence when starting a new business.
1. Spy on your competition
Everyone has a website. It doesn’t matter if you are a corner mom and pop shop, people will drive a half mile further to visit a place they found online 9 times out of 10. So have a website and look at your competitions site. What did they do right? What did they do wrong? Take the good and improve it, avoid the mistakes your competition has made.
2. What about SEO?
There are billions upon billions of websites, literally. If you want to be found online you absolutely need to think about your search engine optimization. There are many sources which will take you through the basics, and at some point you might want to hire a professional. For now concentrate on title tags, your actual content, and even the quality of your design.
3. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel
There is a reason so many sites in your niche have a similar design (you did research your competition right?) Leave reinvention for the professionals. You want to be unique, yes, but for now take other basic platforms that have been shown to work, and follow suit.
4. Be unique!
Okay, we know we just said to use what works, but within the basic platform, navigation, etc that has been shown to work you have literally limitless room for innovation. What are your primary benefits? Now present them in a clear, unique and interesting way that no one else has thought of. Come up with a unique selling point. Come up with unique taglines. How are you going to show people just how great your product and service are without sounding cheesy or desperate? Sure, it’s hard, but it’s also fun and worth it. At some point you might want to consider hiring a professional here as well, they will have more insight on how to be successful in just about any industry, but for now see what you can come up with.
5. Design
What’s the first thing someone sees when they come to your website? If you can’t answer that than you haven’t put enough time and thought into your design. Your design needs to uniquely represent your product or service in a positive way, while not distracting from the content and not slowing down visitor’s browsers. There’s a reason they call it “Art”””at the same time, don’t make the design so distracting they forget why they are there. You need to find a balance, a unique, memorable and beautiful balance, but still a balance. Again, at some point a professional designer will be the way to go, but starting out, doing it yourself can be a great learning experience.
Bio: iIntentio is a Web Design firm located in Long Island, NY. Jeff Gross, SEO and marketing expert, founded iIntentio to help businesses of all sizes increase their web presence and bottom line. If you would like to learn more please go to www.iintentio.com.